Cooking along the Costa Navarino

Chef Maria Elia looks to her roots on a gourmet odyssey in Greece

I recently took a trip to Costa Navarino in Greece’s southwest Peloponnese, in search of inspiration for some new recipes using the destination’s own range of authentic Greek produce, Navarino Icons, against a backdrop of warming autumn sunshine. I certainly wasn’t to be disappointed on my quest for culinary ideas.

I arrived from Athens with the darkness of the night lit by a canvas of twinkling stars. The spectacular lobby at the Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort, one of two luxury five-star hotels in Costa Navarino, offered an impressive welcome with enormous wood-beamed ceilings and elegant furniture.

If the lobby was impressive, the best was yet to come, a suite complete with my very own infinity pool. I genuinely started to wonder about squatters’ rights in Greece.

I ate dinner that first night at Eleon, one of the many restaurants at Costa Navarino. To start, I shared the maniatiki, a barley rusk topped with fresh tomatoes, orange and siglino, a delectable cured pork from the Mani region, and armi, a delicious soft cheese (a little cottage-cheese-like in texture but a million times tastier). I’d eaten rusks before, in Crete, but this was sensational. I had to abstain from eating it all in order to leave room for the ‘scrambled eggs’.

And, honestly, these were the best scrambled eggs I have tasted, but of course they weren’t just any old scrambled eggs: kayianas is a dish of eggs, tomato sauce and yet more siglino. It looked like a bowl of hot tomatoey couscous and tasted amazing. From now, on I won’t be eating eggs any other way. They really were a revelation, so simple and memorable, but then again that’s what Greek food is all about. It’s not all ‘showy-offey’; it’s about fresh ingredients doing the talking, and it’s my soapbox subject of choice.

A whole charcoal-grilled snapper followed and a bowl of horta (wild greens dressed with lemon and extra virgin olive oil – Costa Navarino’s own of course), along with a bottle of Navarino Vineyards’ buttery chardonnay, aged in French oak barrels, rich and complex, a perfect accompaniment to our meal. We somehow managed to find room for the >karidopita, a walnut cake with vanilla ice-cream and petimezi (grape molasses).

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The Romanos in Costa Navarino

Following a restful sleep, I woke to find my surroundings looked even more stunning in daylight. Breakfast was at the Pero restaurant (once I found my bearings). The Romanos has 321 rooms and suites set in vast gardens, so it’s perfect for a wander before breakfast to soak up the scenery.

I was thrilled to see those scrambled eggs were part of the hot-buffet offering; there’s a lot of choice – from continental cheese and cold cuts to Greek yogurt, fruit, nuts, honeys and mini cheese pies. Coffee’s my thing so it was wonderful to fit a quick Greek fix in at Kefenio, a cute traditional coffee house with bare brick walls and tavern-style furniture. They also serve grilled sfela here: Greece’s equivalent to Cypriot halloumi and a must-try.

Here, you can also purchase and sample the beautifully packaged Navarino Icons products, such as ‘olive spoon sweets’ stuffed with almonds, marmalades and oils, which provided inspiration for my recipes. The products are sold in Harrods and Marks & Spencer in the UK, so I know where I am heading on my return to London.

There’s also a traditional Greek taverna, souvlaki bar, gourmet ice-cream parlor and a collection of boutique shops to explore.

It’s so easy to take a bottle of humble olive oil for granted, but taking part in the annual olive harvest will certainly change your mind. Autumn is a hive of activity here: the olives are painstakingly beaten with sticks from the trees onto mesh nets, which are carefully gathered, packed into crates and whisked off to the mill, where they are washed, pressed and filtered. Speed is imperative to achieve the finest extra-virgin oils. It takes 10kg of olives to produce one litre of oil. This is a backbreaking business, especially when there are over 1,000 trees on site.

Learning how to make pasta in Messinia

I also enjoyed a traditional Messinian cooking class with two women named Lula and Anna in a house overlooking Navarino Bay. Here, I learnt how to make hilopites – an artisan fresh egg pasta – courgette fritters and semolina syrup cake, which we later devoured with salad, slow-cooked chicken and wine.

I felt excited and inspired to cook with such a wealth of fresh, organic ingredients on offer. Costa Navarino has its own vegetable garden and countless varieties of herbs and other edible plants growing in every corner, crack and crevice. It is a chef’s dream.

It’s plain to see that there’s a huge sense of giving back at Costa Navarino – to the locals and the land. It’s admirable to see the strong commitment placed on environmental responsibility and preserving Messinia’s natural beauty and heritage.

Costa Navarino really has it all, and yet delivers such a sense of space. Despite the hotel being 90 per cent full, I still felt as though I had the place to myself. Now that’s the kind of inspiring destination I’m looking for on my travels.

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The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort, from about £245 a night. Maria Elia also stayed at the Westin Resort Costa Navarino, from about £160 a night. For more information, visit costanavarino.com. Aegean Airlines flies daily from London Heathrow and Gatwick to Athens.

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